Roofing in Poland

Poland's roofing heritage is strongly linked to timber: steep shingle roofs on Gothic log churches in the south, tiered shingle domes on Eastern-rite tserkvas in the Carpathian borderlands, and the steep shingled roofs of the Zakopane style in the Tatras. In towns, clay tile prevailed, and in the 20th century corrugated asbestos-cement sheet spread over countryside buildings. Today metal roofing is the largest segment of the Polish market, and the country runs a national programme to remove asbestos products by 2032.

Climate and hazards

Poland has a temperate climate transitional between maritime and continental, with snowy winters, especially in the Carpathians and Sudetes, and summer storms. Snow loads follow Eurocode 1, Part 1-3. Asbestos in old fibre-cement roofs is a long-term health and waste issue.

Roofing history

At Biskupin, a fortified settlement of the Lusatian culture, oak for about 102-106 log houses was felled between 747 and 722 BC; each house measured about 8 by 10 m (26 by 33 ft). The settlement has been reconstructed as an open-air museum, though the original roof coverings are not known.

Medieval and early modern churches in southern Poland were built of horizontal logs with very steep shingle roofs. Six of them, at Binarowa, Blizne, Dębno, Haczów, Lipnica Murowana and Sękowa, form the UNESCO site of the Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska. In the Carpathian borderlands, Orthodox and Greek Catholic communities built log tserkvas between the 16th and 19th centuries, clad in shingles that must be renewed every 20-30 years.

In the 1890s the painter and architect Stanisław Witkiewicz created the Zakopane style, based on the houses of Podhale highlander villages such as Chochołów. Its first villa, Koliba, was built in 1892, and its buildings have steep shingled roofs, with attics covered by separate roofs. Witkiewicz's chapel at Jaszczurówka (1904-1908) has a shingled gable roof and tall tower.

In the second half of the 20th century, corrugated asbestos-cement sheet was widely used on houses and farm buildings, and large post-war apartment blocks were built with flat roofs.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Wooden shingles: split wooden shingles on churches, belfries, highland houses and farm buildings.
• Thatch: straw and reed on rural houses until the 20th century.
• Clay tile: in towns and on manors, including flat beaver-tail tiles.
• Zakopane style: steep shingled roofs with separately roofed attics.

Roofing today

A 2024 Spectis study covered in the trade press ranked the Polish roofing market by value as follows: metal roofing (including metal roof tiles, blachodachówka) first, bitumen roofing felts second, ceramic tiles third, cement and fibre-cement tiles fourth, synthetic membranes fifth and liquid membranes last. Metal roofing had gained share, mainly in single-family housing. The market was estimated at about PLN 7.7 billion in 2022 and about PLN 6.2 billion in 2023.

The national asbestos removal programme assumed that about 14.5 million tonnes of asbestos-containing products had to be removed. A 2022 audit by the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) found that less than 17% of inventoried products had been removed in the programme's first 12 years, and a 2010 regulation sets 31 December 2032 as the deadline for withdrawing them from use. See shifer.

Codes, standards and regulation

Construction is governed by the Building Law (Prawo budowlane) of 7 July 1994, published in the Journal of Laws (Dz.U. 1994, item 414) and amended many times. As an EU member, Poland applies European product standards and the Eurocodes.

Industry

The Polish market has many metal roofing producers: of 80 firms analysed in the 2024 Spectis study, 43 offered metal roofing, while ceramic tile production was concentrated in five firms and concrete tile in four.

Notable roofs

• Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska (UNESCO, 2003). See Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska.
• Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region (UNESCO, 2013), eight in Poland, including Kwiatoń, Powroźnik and Smolnik.
• Koliba villa (1892) and Jaszczurówka chapel (1904-1908), Zakopane.

Local roofing terms

• blachodachówka - metal roof tile (steel sheet pressed in a tile profile)
• papa - roofing felt

Sources and gaps

Polish census data on roof materials and information on individual companies were not found in published sources; the market ranking is by sales value, not roof area.